Crystal's Heart by B.L Miller and Verda Foster

Crystal Sheridan is a stripper. She ran away from an abusive home when she was fifteen, ten years before. She lived alone in a seedy run down apartment, that is until she accidentally caused a fire and it burned down one night. After spending the rest of the night in her car, she goes apartment hunting. For the money she can afford, she is offered a chance of sharing an apartment with lesbian author, Laura Taylor. It’s actually Laura’s friend Peter, that rents the place to Crystal in Laura’s absence.

When Laura returns to her home and meets Crystal, she is horrified. The two roomies are as different as night and day. Crystal drinks, smokes and does drugs, to say nothing of her stripping job and is an untidy slob. Laura on the other hand, hardly drinks, abhors drugs and is also an obsessive neat freak. How are the two women going to exist living together?

Time elapses and both women find themselves becoming more tolerant towards each other. Laura sees a vulnerability in Crystal that changes her outlook of the woman all together. She sets out to help Crystal overcome her fears. In helping Crystal, it also helps Laura overcome some of her own fears. It’s not long before Laura begins to feel more for Crystal than just friendship. But Crystal is straight, isn’t she? Also as the two women have nothing in common, will they even be able to become friends?

I first read this book online a few years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed the book then. Both BL Miller and Verda Foster have covered some extremely sensitive topics brilliantly. Child abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, prostitution, and infidelity are just some of them . But the book is written with such understanding that what could be a big turn off for a reader, actually makes a reader understand more about the subjects, without getting too heavy. I only wish BL Miller and Verda Foster would write more books.